"Even in men who had no past history of heart disease, erectile dysfunction still predicted whether or not they went to hospital for heart disease and whether or not they died prematurely."

The researchers adjusted for the impact of known heart disease risk factors including blood pressure, high cholesterol, age, BMI, smoking and socioeconomic factors.

"We also found erectile dysfunction was linked to heart diseases beyond those that had originally been established," says Banks.

"And those that had already had heart disease were more likely to go to hospital again for another cardiovascular problem, the more severe their erectile dysfunction was."

Banks says that 1 in 5 men over 40 report moderate to severe erectile dysfunction.

"Men with severe erectile dysfunction were around 60 per cent more likely to go to hospital for coronary heart disease than men with no erection problems and they were twice as likely to die [in the follow up period]," she says.